Apache® Hadoop® is a system configured to store and process data using a distributed computing framework. In Apache Hadoop, files can be stored in a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). The HDFS is a distributed file system that can be deployed on multiple off-the-shelf computers. The computers are designated as nodes organized in one or more clusters. The nodes in an HDFS cluster include a name node and multiple data nodes. The data nodes are configured to serve read and write requests from clients of the HDFS cluster. The name node is configured to manage the cluster, including controls access to the files on the data nodes by the clients.
A node of the HDFS designated as a NameNode can store extended attributes (xattrs). The extended attributes include user-defined metadata associated with a file or directory. Unlike other system-level metadata such as system-level file access permissions, creation time, or modification time, extended attributes are not interpreted by the operating system and are instead used by applications to store additional information about the files or directories.